Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!iuvax!rutgers!njin!princeton!phoenix!kpmancus From: kpmancus@phoenix.Princeton.EDU (Keith P. Mancus) Newsgroups: sci.space Subject: Re: Manned vs unmanned space exploration Message-ID: <6306@phoenix.Princeton.EDU> Date: 11 Feb 89 22:17:29 GMT References: <8902100153.AA02978@cmr.icst.nbs.gov> Organization: Princeton University, NJ Lines: 32 > > A question to those who feel that all current space exploration should be > unmanned: The US and the USSR have both sent out a fair number of unmanned > scientific probes, but it is my impression that the US is ahead, or at > least even, on the development and deployment of advanced scientific probes. > On the other hand, the USSR has placed a much greater emphasis on manned > missions, and many people claim that the US is "hopelessly behind" in > space exploration, citing as their chief argument the higher average human > occupation of space by the Soviets. Is the USSR wasting its money? And if > manned exploration for its own sake is insignificant, is the US really > not all that far behind? > roberts@cmr.icst.nbs.gov Well, I am not one of those who feels that *ALL* current exploration should be unmanned, but I'll answer you question: we are dreadfully far behind in unmanned exploration. Admittedly the Soviets seem to have a much higher probe failure rate than we do, but at least they are moving forward. Where was the U.S. probe of Halley's comet? Why are Galileo and the Space Telescope still on the ground? When is Cassini going up? Some of these were delayed by the idiotic dependence the Shuttle as the launcher; some were cancelled due to lack of funds; some are going to be highly impractical to implement because our lack of big boosters forces tricks like *double* gravity whips via Jupiter and Venus to get to the destination. (This was said by Professor Meese, currently teaching a course in space flight engineering. He formerly worked at JPL.) Also, funding for unmanned exploration is very hard to get. -- ------------------------------------------------------------------ -Keith Mancus <- preferred